1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for thermotherapy which treats an affected region of a human being at an elevated temperature.
2. Description of the Related Art
Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Nos. 61-58671 and 61-58672 disclose a system for measuring temperature at a plurality of sites in a region of interest of a human being so that the region of the human being can be treated at an elevated temperature. The disclosed system is adapted to uniformly elevate temperature at the whole region of interest through the control of a temperature-elevating energy simply by providing an output corresponding to one of a plurality of measuring sites to be warmed. A result of temperature measurement at other sites is employed for a mere consideration or attention and is not used for the control of the temperature-elevating output. Through the measurement by the one and only temperature sensor at the region of interest, the temperature there can be controlled under the predetermined conditions until the medical treatment is complete.
The conventional treating apparatus of this type is adapted to, prior to starting a thermal treatment, select one of the temperature sensors and to control a temperature-elevating output, for the whole region of interest based on temperature data measured by the specific temperature sensor thus selected. However, there arises a problem as will be set out below.
In the conventional apparatus, prior to the start of medical treatment, one of the temperature sensors is selected for temperature control. Since the selected temperature sensor allows predetermined control only to an extent restricted by a result of its measurement, no optimal temperature can be obtained from that measurement as viewed from the region to be temperature-elevated. The temperature involved is sometimes increased too high at some part or decreased too low at other parts of the region of interest, thus sometimes failing to adequately and effectively treat the whole region of interest of the human being. A part of the body cavity region, if being locally temperature-raised too high, causes a local burn there, requiring a proper margin of safety. This also inhibits efficient medical treatment on the region of interest of the human being.